The Ring
by Deya Amaya
Summary: post series AU. what happens when Katara finds a betrothal ring in Zuko's closet? Is it for her? Or someone else? My first ever fanfic, please be nice :) Romance and crack, a bit of fluff. Please let me know your thoughts even if it's negative :D Zutara and some other pairings. COMPLETE
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: so I'm about to actually post a fanfiction I have in my head. It's from Avatar: The last airbender. Pairing is ZukoXKatara. And I think it has nothing explicit. Just a lot of fluff, maybe :) probably it'll take a while to complete and there will be really short chapters ._

**Disclimer for all chapters: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or it's characters._  
_**

Chapter 1:  
She found it in Zuko's closet.

She'd snuck in Zuko's room late last night after the celebration ball. She was only wearing her formal dress then. But she was now feeling cold. It was only a few hours till dawn. The sky was getting lighter and Katara was preparing to sneak back to her own room. She was looking for a spare cloak of Zuko that she could borrow for the time. She'd been rummaging around clumsily when a flash of red silk caught the candle light.

The colour was rich and vibrant among the pile of black, and Katara wondered what it was doing with his shoes- She'd never seen Zuko wear red silk shoes. She made a face at that thought.

Intrigued, she tugged at the cloth, which turned out to be part of a small pouch. She peeked inside and saw it.

The ring sported what looked like thousands of tiny gemstones of vibrant green and blue colour, embedded in an intricately made gold flower. For a moment she forgot to breath as she took in the beauty of the object in her palm. Then her rationality kicked in.

"This is Zuko's closet. I'm in Zuko's closet. Snooping and looking at things that aren't my business."  
The logical course of action would be to leave the ring where she found it and leave immediately, Katara thought as she held up the ring against the light. It was small and delicate, definitely made for a woman. A woman with slender fingers. It was a standard, top class firenation betrothal ring.

What was it doing in Zuko's closet?

It definitely wasn't for her, Katara thought. Their relationship wasn't even public knowledge yet. Apart from herself and Zuko, only a few people knew. Toph, because she couldn't be lied to. Suki, because she was Katara's best friend and her relationship advisor. And uncle Iroh because. . . Oh well, he found them out by accident. Zuko had broken up with Mai saying it wasn't working out for them, but the rest of the Firenation had no idea that their beloved Firelord was the secret lover of a waterbender.

For a second Katara thought about Mai. Gold would look becoming on her long, pale slender fingers. What if Zuko was planning to get back with Mai? He'd never really made a committment to Katara anyway. . .

She put the ring and the pouch back where she found it and left Zuko's room. Blind speculations won't get her anywhere. She'd have to ask Zuko later. . . In a better time, she decided. Yet she couldn't help feeling slightly distressed that he'd chosen to hide it from her.

Stupid firebender.


	2. Chapter 2

Toph could tell something was wrong with Sugarqueen.

Toph, Suki and Katara were having their breakfast together, as was the tradition whenever the girls had the chance to skip their job of saving the world and relax. The venue was Zuko's palace this time, because they'd been invited to attend the festival thrown in favor of his birthday. Toph had woken up quite late, thanks to the person who kept her bed reasonably warm. . .

Her unusually fluffy mood was interrupted by Sugarqueen's panicy rant and Toph gave up trying to drown out her voice by chewing on her food loudly. After listening for half an hour of gibberish, she decided that katara was talking about a female's ring hidden in Zuko's room. And according to Katara, it was very, very suspicious.

Toph couldn't see much suspiciousness in it. But that's probably because she already knew what the ring was about. Oh yeah, nothing was a secret to Toph off course. Even when . . .

Toph furrowed her brows. Katara shouldn't know about this, nope. She would make a big fuss about it and Zuko will bang his head on an ornamental pillar till they both crack. Now Toph couldn't have it. If Zuko dies then uncle will be sad, Katara will be sad, Aang will be sad, Suki and Sokka will be sad. And maybe Toph will be a tiny li'l bit sad too. Oh, and there will be a war between the nations again.

That being said, Toph had no other choice than to distract Katara, which wasn't too hard, actually.

Toph cleared her throat loudly. "Hey Sugarqueen, let's go have a bending match in Zuko's garden!"

The "bending match" turned into a full fledged mud throwing party withing ten minutes. Good thing Zuko was busy doing whatever Firelording he was busy with because he'd have eaten his own limbs if he saw what a mess his precious pond had become. A couple of hours later Toph couldn't stand up straight from all the mud in her hair and so Katara proposed to finish up for the day. Her offer to clean up Toph with bending water was turned down rudely as Toph herself bent the mud out of her hair and a sizable portion landed on Katara's face with a wet SPLAT. Cursing under her breath, Katara stalked towards the cleaner end of the pond to clean up, Toph's annoying laughter trailing after her.

Slipping into to clear water, Katara swept off the mud from her skin and hair in a few quick moves. She dried off the excessive water with another lazy hand movement, idly watching as the droplets dissipated in air. The morning clouds were gone and the sunshine felt like liquid bliss on her skin. She lent back against a tree and closed her tired eyes, letting her mind wonder. Which was actually a bad idea. A very bad idea, thought her frantic brain as a strong arm shot out of the bush next to the tree and yanked her in.


	3. Chapter 3

(A/N: I'm sorry about the cliffy last chapter guys ^^" please forgive me! Thanks to everyone who reviewed and faved and followed this. You people are lovely :') This chapter is really huge. Please let me know if you like it or not and also tell me if you have any suggestions. Now, enjoy ^_^)

Danger was an addictive thing.

The rush of blood, the heightening of senses, the frantic beating of heart and the tingling of anticipation running towards fingertips- yeah. Katara was addicted to it. She was pretty sure the others were too. Avatar and his best buddies, they grew up in a time when death threats were about as regular as a meal and assassination attempts on their lives as frequent as once a week. They soon grew bored and tired of it. But when it all ended and the nations seemingly settled into a peaceful lifestyle, Katara became restless. Danger was her drug. Her euphoria. The lack of danger bored her now. And even four years after Zuko became firelord, she wasn't completely over the addiction.

So when the mysterious attacker wrapped his (yes, it was definitely a he) arm around her waist and bodily pulled her back, a part of her mind was screaming in alarm and calling her bending to start acting already, another part was dumbstruck at the prospect of being attacked in the dead centre of firelord's palace, and the last -and slightly insane- part of her brain was loving every microsecond of it, was heady with the prospect of a real fight.

When she was pulled close enough the the attacker, he wrapped another arm around her shoulders and held her back flush to his chest. Katara's breathing hitched in anticipation and she needed just another second to solidify the ice daggers in air-

A rich, throaty chuckle resonated against her hair, stopping her dead on track. The semi solidified ice daggers fell to the ground and shattered.  
"Scared, little waterbender?"

Almost against her will, her body relaxed against his, leaning her head on his shoulder.  
"For La's sake, don't freak me out like that. Stupid firebender." she murmured quietly.  
Katara vaguely remembered being angry on him about something but promptly lost her concentration when he started dropping feather light kisses on her exposed shoulder. She blinked a few times before melting into his embrace completely.

Her mind scrambled and paused to pull itself together as he sighed behind her ear, raising goosebumps all the way to her toes. Something tugged on her memories as he ran his knuckles up from the fingertips of her left arm. . . But. . . Nope. No luck. Her brain was still MIA.

"So. . .", he started with inhaling the scent of her hair. "how come you left without kissing me good morning?" he continued with a subtle pout on his voice. Katara found that she could think now that his lips were talking and not kissing.

Why had she left again? Usually she stayed until he woke up to sneak back. Hmm. . . She remembered feeling cold in her sleeveless dress. . . Looking for a cloak in his closet. . . Oh!  
Oh!  
OOH!  
She'd forgotten all about the bloody ring!

Katara shot out of his lap as fast as her body would allow. She then whirled around to face him, pointing a finger accusingly .  
"YOU-!"  
Her words died in her throat as she realised what she was looking at. Apparently he'd also just returned from bending practice, if the bare torso and gleaming, sweaty skin was any indication. She gulped once. Focus Katara! She chided herself. Zuko was already looking confused at her erratic mannerism. She shook her head and continued with the angry accusation speech.

After ten solid minutes of being lectured by his lady love, Zuko's eyebrow's had gotten lost somewhere at the back of his head and his jaw was threatening to be permanently locked in the open position. He felt the urge to laugh and cry and kiss her senseless at the same time. And he was heavily impressed by the ability of her brain to come up with such creative ideas. He noticed her stop the rant to gulp down some air and he took the chance to stop her.

"No, Katara," he shook his head firmly.  
"No, what?"  
"No, I am not two timing with Mai. No, I didn't make the ring by myself because I'm oh-so-romantic and no, I am not planning to give that ring to her and ask her to marry me. Agni. How can you even think I would. . . ?" he trailed off. Katara wanted to cry at the brief look of hurt that flashed in his eyes.

"So then. . . " she shifted uneasily. "What's the ring for? It's definitely a betrothal ring, right?"  
"That's right. But I can't tell you any more about it. It's a secret." he said solemnly.  
Katara felt exasperated. Why was he keeping secrets from her? She was about to launch into another rant when Zuko held out a hand.  
"Meet me at the balcony of my bedchambers tonight, at 11. I'll explain everything."  
Katara still looked somewhat uncertain. He bit on his lower lip in agitation. "Katara. . Please. . . Trust me. . ."  
This time, there was no mistaking the blatant hurt on his voice. Katara winced. Trust was a touchy issue between them.

"I'll see you, then." Katara said in a small voice and walked past him without a second glance. She wasn't ready to deal with this right now.

"Agni!" he closed his eyes and murmured helplessly. "please let me do this right."


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: this is the last chapter and I hope you have all enjoyed my efforts ^^ Thank you for reading this :)_

She spent the evening acting as the Southern watertribe's representative in the four nation's meeting. As the night grew, so did the number of butterflies in her stomach. After dinner she spied Zuko turning away from the drinks table and slip out of the party. She quickly followed.

He knew well that she was following him. But neither said a word as they reached his room. He moved to his balcony after lighting up a few candles in the room. Parting the thick curtains a crack, he looked over to find her lingering at the door.

She looked uncertain as he gestured at the part in curtains, silently asking her to come and take a look outside. He was supposed to talk, wasn't he? But she crossed the room and stone besides him, peeking out at the wide courtyard.

Wait. . . . What was Sokka doing out here?

And. . . Is that. . . !?

Katara gaped at Zuko and he nodded once, confirming that the red silk pouch in Sokka's hand was indeed the one Katara had seen in Zuko's closet. He jerked his chin to get her attention back towards the scene outside and she looked just in time to catch Suki walking towards Sokka.

The situation got clearer to her as she continued to watch her brother propose to her best friend with THE ring and the said best friend agreed with a kiss. Katara let the curtain close with a tug, listening to Zuko breathing quietly behind her. She was about to apologise, but he beat her to it.

"Katara. . . I'm sorry for not telling you but Sokka made me promise I won't tell ANYONE and you're Suki's best friend and if you knew she'll know so-"  
"It's okay."  
"- even if you're mad- wait, it's okay?!"

She offered him a shy smile. She was drowning in guilt that made it hard to talk. How would she ever make it up to him?

His fingers found and tangled with hers. And then, gently, he tugged her closer.

"I have something for you too."

She blushed instantly, her heart going crazy. He placed something cool into her hand and looked away, looking nervous.

There was a necklace in her hand. A watertribe betrothal necklace, slightly modified in the firenation style. Instead of pure blue, the ribbon was woven with red and blue silk threads that made it look purple. The pendant was a conglomerate of gold and silver, mingling to create the watertribe and firenation symbols side by side, embracing each other.

While she stared at it in awe, her silence made Zuko panic.

"I did make the pendant myself, you see. . . As per tradition. And I get it if you don't like it. . . I can make you another one-"

She cut him off with a kiss and soon he had no doubt that she liked the necklace very much.

From her position atop the roof tiles, Toph made a retching noise.  
"All this sugar overdose is making me sick. Oi twinkletoes!" she addressed the other occupant of the roof, "marry me!"

The mighty Avatar fell off the roof with a shriek.

**The End**


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